Devs project Ethereum Merge to be by September

[TL;DR]

🔷 The ethereum will be transiting from a Proof of Work(PoW) to a Proof of Stake (PoS) network in an event called The Merge.

🔷 According to recent events, the Merge is now slated to occur on the 19th of September, 2022.

🔷 There have been test launches that revealed specific issues on the Ethereum 1.0's testnet and Beacon Chain's ETH 2.0, which has caused a delay. As such, the projected date is susceptible to change.


In a recent development, Ethereum developers have revealed a new target date for the long-awaited Merge of the blockchains. The Merge is the network transition from a PoW(Proof of Work) blockchain to a PoS(Proof of Stake) network, which is more energy efficient. The Merge is expected to deploy on the 19th of September.

At the time of this writing, there is now a PoS variant of Ethereum operating in parallel to the mainnet's PoW version. This development commenced around December 2020. However, with the recent development, the Beacon Chain will merge all Ethereum activities on the 19th of September, 2022.


Countdown to The Merge

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Tim Beiko announced the expected target date for The Merge during the most recent Ethereum developers meeting on YouTube.

Superphiz. eth further expatiated this as they provided details about how a final Ethereum testnet experiment will be conducted on Goerli around the 11th of August. The blockchain network can be upgraded or altered on testnets without causing the network to collapse. Marius van der Wijden noted that the latest "shadow fork" is a "step in the right direction."




What will ethereum Merge look like?

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The Merge will herald the emergence of another consensus mechanism and the demise of another consensus mechanism for Ethereum. In the projected new PoS network, validators will verify transactions instead of miners. To be a validator on the Ethereum network, you must deposit at least 32 Ethereum to the Beacon Chain. Those deposits provide a financial incentive for maintaining confirming transactions; if they don't, they may lose part. By keeping their uptime and avoiding fraudulent behavior, validators can earn more Ethereum.

There are other widespread use cases for PoS networks. However, none is as popular as Ethereum as far as investor and development activity is concerned.

A long-awaited launch of The Merge tested the Ropsten and Sepolia testnets in June and July, following tests in April. Ethereum 2.0's Beacon Chain and Ethereum 1.0's testnet encountered various technical glitches that delayed the plan from its original August deadline.


The Difficulty Bomb & Gray Glacier Hard Fork

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Ethereum announced that it would delay the "difficulty bomb" mechanism until after the Gray Glacier hard fork event at the end of June, so there would be more time to prepare for it and check for any bugs. However, to move towards a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism, the difficulty bomb mechanism increases the difficulty of mining ETH. The transition from ETH to Ethereum 2.0 requires this step.

The 19th of September is a specific date, but overall, timelines for The Merge are still tentative. Ethereum developers can delay The Merge until next year if technical problems persist.


Conclusion

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Following a period of a market correction and a negative outlook in the second quarter, many experts view The Merge as the only meaningful blockchain event in 2022. This recent development can be the turning point for the Ethereum platform, and we could see the network ending the year on a better note.



Author: Gate.io Observer: M. Olatunji
* This article represents only the views of the observers and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
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